Officials of the Barack Obama administration have aggressively
leaked information supposedly based on classified intelligence
in recent days to bolster the allegation that two high-ranking officials from Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)
were involved in a plot to assassinate Saudi Ambassador Adel
al-Jubeir in Washington, D.C.

The media stories generated by the leaks helped divert press
attention from the fact that there is no verifiable evidence of any
official Iranian involvement in the alleged assassination plan,
contrary to the broad claim being made by the administration.

But the information about the two Iranian officials leaked to NBC
News, The Washington Post, and Reuters was unambiguously false and
misleading, as confirmed by official documents in one case and a
former senior intelligence and counterterrorism official in the
other.

The main target of the official leaks was Abdul Reza Shahlai, who was
identified publicly by the Obama administration as a “deputy
commander in the Quds Force” of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard
Corps. Shahlai had long been regarded by U.S. officials as a key
figure in the Quds Force’s relationship to Moqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi
Army in Iraq.

The primary objective of the FBI sting operation involving
Iranian-American Manssor Arbabsiar and a Drug Enforcement Administration
(DEA) informant that was started last June now appears to have been
to use Arbabsiar to implicate Shahlai in a terror plot.

U.S. officials had learned from the DEA informant that Arbabsiar
claimed that Shahlai was his cousin.

In September 2008, the Treasury Department designated Shahlai
as an
individual “providing financial, material, and technical support for
acts of violence that threaten the peace and stability of Iraq,” which
made him subject to specific financial sanctions. The announcement said
Shahlai had provided “material support” to the Mahdi Army in 2006 and
that he had “planned the Jan. 20, 2007, attack” by Mahdi Army “Special
Groups” on U.S. troops at the Provincial Coordination Center in
Karbala, Iraq.

Arbabsiar’s confession claims that Shahlai approached him in early
spring 2011 and asked him to find “someone in the narcotics business”
to kidnap the Saudi ambassador to the United States, according to the
FBI account. Arbabsiar implicates Shahlai in providing him with
thousands of dollars for his expenses.

But Arbabsiar’s charge against Shahlai was self-interested. Arbabsiar
had become the cornerstone of the administration’s case against
Shahlai in order to obtain leniency on charges against him.

There is no indication in the FBI account of the investigation that
there is any independent evidence to support Arbabsiar’s claim of
Shahlai’s involvement in a plan to kill the ambassador.

The Obama administration planted stories suggesting that Shahlai had
a terrorist past and that it was therefore credible that he could be
part of an assassination plot.

Laying the foundation for press stories on the theme, the Treasury
Department announced Tuesday that it was sanctioning Shahlai, along
with Arbabsiar and three other Quds Force officials, including the
head of the organization, Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, for being
“connected to” the assassination plot.

But Michael Isikoff of NBC News reported the same day that Shahlai
“had previously been accused of plotting a highly sophisticated
attack that killed five U.S. soldiers in Iraq, according to U.S.
government officials and documents made public Tuesday afternoon.”

Isikoff, who is called a “national investigative correspondent” at NBC
News, reported that the Treasury Department had designated Shahlai as
a “terrorist” in 2008, despite the fact that the Treasury
announcement of the designation had not used the term “terrorist.”

On Saturday, The Washington Post published a report closely
paralleling the Isikoff story but going even further in claiming
documentary proof of Shahlai’s responsibility for the January 2007
attack in Karbala. Post reporter Peter Finn wrote
that Shahlai “the guiding hand behind an elite group of gunmen from the
feared militia of the cleric Moqtada al-Sadr,” which had carried out an
attack on U.S. troops in
Karbala in January 2007.

Finn cited the fact that the Treasury Department named Shahlai as the
“final approving and coordinating authority” for training Sadr’s
militiamen in Iran. That fact would not in itself be evidence of
involvement in a specific attack on U.S. forces. On the contrary, it
would suggest that he was not involved in operational aspects of the
Mahdi Army in Iraq.

Finn then referred to a “22-page memo that detailed preparations for
the operation and tied it to the Quds Force.” But he didn’t refer to
any evidence that Shahlai personally had anything to do with the
operation.

In fact, U.S. officials acknowledged in the months after the Karbala
attack that they had found no evidence of any Iranian involvement in
the operation.

Talking with reporters about the memo on April 26, 2007, several weeks
after it had been captured, Gen. David Petraeus conceded that it did
not show that any Iranian official was linked to the planning of the
Karbala operation. When a journalist asked him whether there was
evidence of Iranian involvement in the Karbala operation, Petraeus
responded, “No. No. No. … [W]e do not have a direct link to Iran
involvement in that particular case.”

In a news briefing in Baghdad July 2, 2007, Gen. Kevin Bergner
confirmed that the attack in Karbala had been authorized by the Iraqi
chief of the militia in question, Qais Khazali, not by any Iranian
official.

Col. Michael X. Garrett, who had been commander of the U.S. Fourth
Brigade combat team in Karbala, confirmed to this writer in December
2008 that the Karbala attack “was definitely an inside job.”

Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, the head of the Quds Force, is on the list
of those Iranian officials “linked” to the alleged terror plot,
because he “oversees the IRGC-QF officers who were involved in this
plot,” as the Treasury Department announcement explained. But a
Reuters story on Friday reported a claim of U.S. intelligence that
two wire transfers totaling $100,000 at the behest of
Arbabsiar to a bank account controlled by the FBI implicates
Soleimani in the assassination plot.

“While details are still classified,” wrote Mark Hosenball and Caren
Bohan, “one official said the wire transfers apparently had some kind
of hallmark indicating they were personally approved” by Soleimani.

But the suggestion that forensic examination of the wire transfers
could somehow show who had approved them is misleading. The wire
transfers were from two separate non-Iranian banks in a foreign
country, according to the FBI’s account. It would be impossible to
deduce who approved the transfer by looking at the documents.

“I have no idea what such a ‘hallmark’ could be,” said Paul Pillar, a
former head of the CIA’s Counterterrorism Center who was also national intelligence officer for the Middle East until his
retirement in 2005.

Pillar told IPS that the “hallmark” notion “pops up frequently in
commentary after actual terrorist attacks,” but the concept is
usually invoked “along the lines of ‘the method used in this attack
had the hallmark of group such and such.'”

That “hallmark” idea “assumes exclusive ownership of a method of
attack which does not really exist,” said Pillar. “I expect the same
could be said of methods of transferring money.”

There was a similar incident in 2008 just before Bush’s visit to Saudi Arabia..

Watch this provocative video which was shown repeatedly on US MSM where Iranian IRGC sailors are threatening US naval vessels in the Persian Gulf….. ‘I am coming to you’ or .’you’ll explode after 2 minutes’.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzyeMvhKp2U

Stupid US propagandists then couldn’t envision Iranians might make their own video on that incident.

[1] It wouldn't look like a smart operation of the Iranian's if all of that is true what is reported by the US administration. And I don't think the Iranian's are so stupid to do that. That's why I consider the entire story as cooked up by the FBI or CIA just to give Obama some more support for the next election.
[2] I personally don't have much pity for a Saudi ambassador or even Saudi prince. And I actually think human kind would be better of without them. The easiest would be for me to kill the bastards when they are here in Switzerland skiing.
W9

In my experience people from Middle-Eastern countries surprisingly often wire small and larger sums money to family or receive support from family, when abroad. The family member with money feels strongly obligated to help the ones who are in need of some funding. Although it often goes from West to Middle-East, in the case of the near broke Arbabsiar it might have easily went the other way. It's a very strong cultural thing especially within Iraq and Iran, where the ones who fled or emigrated are often connected to reasonable wealthy and educated families. This broad loyalty is number one priority and obligation for these people, with hardly any questions asked.

In that light the wire transfer in itself is not unlikely at all, assuming the cousin was indeed wealthy. But I'm afraid it's more likely Arbabsiar got stuck in his own web of lies and now rather goes with this to him suggested plot than just admitting it was all stemming from his own confused mind and that he thereby implicated the ones he cared for on a whim.

Even assuming the wire transfer was real, it's not an unusual or unexpected thing at all. The known evidence appears still to revolve around the thoughts of one confused, desperate man who might rather die than reveal his potential grave and humiliating lack of common sense and disregard for his own family.

Is the US challenging our intelligence with this terror stunt. Well they may be successful with there own lemming citizen but I doubt it very much with the rest of the world. When God was doling out brains and common sense, Americans arrived long after the supply had run out.

This is blame game will continue lies after lies and Washington post is behind these publications.
America has not enough from such dirty war fare through their agencies who is greedy to get more money from administration.

[…] on ….. the plot being stopped in "the nick of time."] Just another ZOGist lie: US Officials Peddle False Intel to Support Terror Plot Claims by Gareth Porter — Antiwar.com Reply With Quote + Reply to […]

Seems like Obama, et al are just beating a dead horse. They've been tried and convicted in the court of public opinion already. Even Iran has moved on to the next accusation. As far as Israel is concerned, mum's the word. Between their own protests, the release of their little mercenary, Sh*t, and the new illegal settlements, they're letting their servants in the US Colony battle it out on their own on their behalf. Seriously, even Ha'aretz isn't talking about this anymore.

Its a lie because the nucular inspectors all said Iran was not building a bomb so thet tryed another angel but say they have evidence and never are willing to show it.And when they do it would never stand up to public opinion let alone a fair court.It would not make it past a preliminary hearing due to lack of evidence.America by dictionary definision is much bigger terrorist along with Israel than anyone else.Many countrys are evil not the entire countrys but the people that run them.But America and Israel are far ahead than any other country.

[…] US Officials Peddle False Intel to Support Terror Plot Claims by Gareth Porter — Antiwar.com Iranian Terror Plot: Fake, Fake, Fake by Justin Raimondo — Antiwar.com GNR fake terrorism is da american way gnr gnr Originally Posted by UGK 4 Life Waits for faggot SSL to come in here and cry about Westcoast inventing Gfunk and the South stealing it since that's all he ever says. Originally Posted by sadr22 So tto is just a tween website? You mean you've been approached by sexual predators? Warrior, please be careful on here before you end up on 60 minutes talking about "i was lured by pedophiles on tto". Reply With Quote + Reply to Thread […]